A Summoning Gone Awry
by butalearner
Summary: Harry and friends design an Old Norse runic ritual to Summon assistance for the battle against Voldemort. The results are...surprising. AU, Ravenclaw!Harry, Ravenclaw!Hermione, Harry/Multi.
1. Chapter 1: The Summoning

Disclaimer: Nothing you read here is mine.

One of the (hopefully minor) issues with _A Curse of Truth_ (*ahem* which you should read if you haven't) is that the PoV character is a little too accepting of his situation. I was aware of this while writing it, but I never really came to a conclusion on how to fix it without changing too much of the story. So this was an exercise I did in the middle of writing that: re-imagining how a person might react if he's pulled into an alternate Harry Potter Universe with knowledge of canon, except seen from HP characters' viewpoints. It's a similar situation, except told from a sort of third person sort-of-limited Harry PoV.

It should be obvious from the summary and the Humor category, but this is not to be taken at all seriously (despite how seriously it ends up taking itself). I have Chapter Two and a bit of Three written, but I don't know how much further this will get as this is not my main project. I guess it depends on the response I receive.

I apologize in advance for the ridiculousness.

* * *

**A Summoning Gone Awry**

**Chapter One: The Summoning**

"Are you _sure_ this is going to work, Luna?" Hermione asked for the tenth time since the ritual began. Her chocolate brown eyes and bushy brown hair clashed magnificently with her black and purple Ravenclaw robes.

"I'll let you know when it's over, my love," Luna said dreamily, slate gray eyes never leaving the runes she's carving around the center of the pentagram.

"Luna..." Hermione whined.

Harry chuckled playfully. "She does that to tease you, Mi. It's only us here, you know that." His bright green eyes danced with mirth as he looked across at Padma and Cho who also hid smiles.

"That doesn't mean it's not embarrassing," she muttered, glancing around at her girlfriends. "Besides, shouldn't she be sure _before_ we actually complete it?"

"Considering it's never been done before, I don't see how that's possible," Cho said, in a velvety soft voice...with a Scottish accent of all things.

"You went over the Arithmantic calculations and the rune placement yourself, Hermione," Padma pointed out, flipping her long, raven locks over her shoulder. "Several times, I might add. Between you, Luna, and Cho in her NEWT year, I trust nothing bad will happen."

"Then why did you have to catch the mistake with the linking multiplier yesterday, Pad?" Hermione said, lips pursed petulantly. "Cho and I both missed that one."

"It was set too low, Hermione," Padma said, rolling her eyes. "It gave us a much larger power margin, or we can complete the ritual four times in a single night instead of three, with only a slightly lower margin than we originally planned."

"That's still assuming they're as powerful as Harry without any of us. What if they're stronger?" Hermione shot back.

"Ladies, ladies," Harry said with a reassuring smile. "You're all brilliant. It's going to work."

"Maybe we should have invited Su or Mike," Hermione said, biting her lip, "in case we need somebody to take us to the Hospital Wing."

"They don't know about us, Mi," Harry reminded her.

"Also, it's really sexy when you bite your lip that," Cho said with a grin.

"Cho..." the bushy-haired girl growled.

"That, too," Padma put in.

"You're impossible, all of you," Hermione huffed.

"That's why you love us," Luna said happily, sitting up. "Harry, will you funnel a bit into the _naud_ at your apex? Just a little, I want to test the flow and balance."

Harry chuckled playfully. "Not gonna lie, Luna, that sounds more than a little bit dirty."

"Focus, Harry," Hermione scolded.

"Already going," Harry said as his eyes seemed to flare green without even pulling out his wand.

Luna quickly tapped her wand to her temple, after which her slate gray eyes turned completely white. "Whoa, stop Harry, you're activating the elemental controls as well. No, it's fine, there's not enough power to open the center. Cho, the stem of your _laguz_ should be a bit longer, and the top left to bottom right diagonal of your _dagaz_ needs to be slightly wider, Padma." She taps her wand to the same temple and her gray eyes return.

"No matter how many times I see that, Luna, it's still scary," Cho said, shuddering slightly before bending down to fix her water rune.

"Is that it, Luna?" Hermione asked in surprise.

The smallest of the four girls shook her head, dirty blonde hair bouncing off her shoulders. "At least as far as the charging, distribution, and elemental runes go. We can't monitor the disruption fields until we actually attempt the first summoning."

"That sounds like a recipe for disaster," the bushy-haired brunette said, more to herself.

"You know the fields will collapse inward, if they do at all," Cho pointed out from her knees, "that's why you insisted on wasting energy by cascading the _hagal-reid_ rings inward five degrees per step _and_ added in an outer _algiz_ ring, remember?"

"It's not a waste," Hermione pouted.

"You're right, my Heart," Harry said, his expression placating. "I'm pretty sure I could have regulated the draw without it, but I'd rather you all be safer." He was telling the truth; putting as much energy into the _hagal-reid_ disruption field as they were planning...well, having it collapsing outward would _hurt_. The _algiz _Shield ring would have absorbed some of that, but he didn't like taking stupid chances. Or at least, not when it involved his girls.

Hermione beamed at him.

"Ever the chivalrous one, our Harry is," Luna said, her head tilted to one side and lips curled up into a smile.

"Done, here," Padma announced as she joined her four friends on their feet.

"Looks good, Padma," Luna said, giving the olive-skinned beauty a nod after scrutinizing her work. "Harry, can you try it again? And use your wand this time, if you don't mind, so we can open the gates separately."

"Of course, my Light."

Luna cheeks pinked for a moment at Harry's use of her pet name before she tapped her wand to her temple once again. Harry touched his wand to the _naud_ rune, which once again causes the _thurs_ power runes to glow slightly. "Perfect. Hermione, Padma, wands to your _ansuz_, please." The two comply and their _odal_ and _dagaz_ runes, respectively, glow slightly. "Cho, our turn." The two at the bottom of the formation touch their wands to the control runes and Luna's _ingwaz_ and Cho's _laguz_ glow with the same brightness. "Harry, there should be enough in the power runes, now. Go ahead and open the gate to your _mannaz_."

He tapped his wand to his _ansuz_ and then stood back up with the four girls. "There was a mild resonance backlash there," Harry reported.

Luna nodded, eyes still on the rune-laced pentagram. "I saw."

"Should be regulated by the _algiz_ ring," Hermione pointed out.

"And opening the gates simultaneously," Cho added.

"How are we on efficiency, Luna? I don't think I'm feeling any dissipation." Padma said.

"I don't really see any either. A _minimum_ of ninety-five percent, I'd say. Pretty much perfect _isaz_ placement."

Harry reaches his hand over to the girl on his left. "Bloody hell Pad, that's fantastic!"

"Language, Harry," Hermione chided as the olive-skinned girl blushed at the compliment.

"Sorry, Mi," Harry said with a smile that said he was anything but. "Well, at this point I think we should go for it."

"Ugh, sometimes I think you should have been in Gryffindor, Harry," Hermione said in disgust.

Harry chuckled at that. "You wound me! I mean, Parv's okay, and the Weasley Twins were brilliant, but what would I have done there all these years?"

"The Weasley Twins, Harry?" Hermione put her hands on her hips in her quite familiar and endearing scolding stance. "They left school before they even took their NEWTs!"

"And look where they are," he countered. "You know how brilliant they both are at Potions; I'd put them up against you and me even with the Prince's notes, and they had Snape the whole time! And while Fred was better at Charms and Transfiguration, George probably could have pulled some of this off, too."

"But they broke the rules constantly!"

"And what would you call this, Hermione?" Cho asked with a grin.

"It's not against the rules to design your own rituals," Hermione muttered.

"I suppose in that case we should pay the headmaster a visit, see what he thinks of our work," Padma said with a suppressed grin.

Hermione's mouth clamped shut at that.

"Let's go higher, Harry," Luna cut in finally. "Everybody close your elemental gates." They all tapped their wand to their respective control runes almost simultaneously.

"Link for this one?" Cho asked. Luna started to shake her head, but Cho persisted. "We should, just to make sure our link doesn't destabilize the charging process."

"She's right, Luna," Hermione put in, "I know it shouldn't since we're going through Harry, but we might as well make our test match the real thing as closely as possible."

Luna nods. "Brilliant, as always. Can you set me up, Hermione?"

"Sure, you need a recharge?" Hermione asked.

"A little, I kept the Sight up too long that last time." Hermione and Luna joined hands, and the latter sighed in relief before she reached out to Cho. Padma joined soon after, only leaving Harry out of the link.

"Damn, Luna, I think you're catching up to me," Cho grumbled.

Luna shook her head. "That's Hermione's fault, I'm over-saturated. Are you drawing on your Twin Bond, Padma? You're getting closer to Hermione I think."

It was Padma's turn to shake her head. "I was before now, so I'm still near full. But I close it off when we're linked, since I'm pretty sure Parv would feel it...especially with Harry linked. And I only seem closer to Hermione after she shared some with you, and even now she's still well ahead."

Harry glanced between them. "Can you use the excess, Luna? Doesn't that increase our power margin?"

"In the link we can use it," she said slowly, "but as soon as we drop out, the excess would dissipate quickly."

"I think we should ignore the extra power margin, Harry," Hermione said firmly.

"No problem," Harry said with a shrug. Then he grinned. "So are you ladies done feeling each other up or are you balanced now?"

"You're such a pervert, Harry," Hermione said with a roll of her eyes.

"Frankly, I have four rather good reasons to be," he said cheekily. "It's a wonder I get anything done at all."

"Too much, Hermione!" Luna gasped just before her and Cho let out a sigh of relief.

"Sorry," Hermione said sheepishly. Harry figured he riled her up a bit too much that time. She turned a mock glare on Harry. "We're ready now, pervert."

With a grin, Harry offered up both hands and Hermione and Padma took them simultaneously. "Got it!" All four women gasped at the initial burst when Harry joined the link.

"Not yet, Harry! Morgana's tits, have you gotten _stronger_ since last week?" Padma cursed as she panted.

"Language, Padma," Hermione said without conviction, eyes glazed over with the pleasure and pain of Harry's overwhelming magical energy surging through the link.

"Sorry ladies," Harry said as he controlled his output and almost immediately heard four equally relieved sighs.

"Link is still stable, passing control to you, Harry," Hermione reported. Once Harry felt the ball pass to him – for that's what it felt like, a ball of tightly interwoven magic – he ramped up his magic again. They dropped each others hands then, having no need for physical contact after the final link was established.

"Padma's right, Harry, you are stronger," Cho said.

"We haven't linked with him in a while, I think we're just used to Hermione doing the overwhelming," Padma pointed out. "Maybe it's part of the same thing, but Harry's magic does feel _rougher_, though."

"It is magnificent," Luna said dreamily. "Harry, go ahead and start charging. I don't think it will matter in the long run, but don't forget to drain enough from us so we won't lose the extra juice Hermione gave me."

"Drain your juice?" Harry grinned widely. "You make me sound like a—"

"Harry," Hermione cut him off.

"Sorry, Mi. Charging." Harry held his wand against the _naud_ rune, slowly accelerating the process.

"Luna," Hermione said, voice growing worried at a flicker in the bright, bluish-white glow of the lower two _thurs_ runes.

"Harry can you—?" Luna's eyes turn white before she finished voicing the question. "Thanks. Back up, Harry. Getting too close to resonance down here."

"No problem." Harry backed off quickly so the light stabilized, then slowly pushed it back up.

"Stop, just a pinch lower, Harry," Luna said.

Harry complied. "It could take some time to max out at this flow rate. I've got a feel for it now, I think I could jump past the resonance."

"No, Harry," Hermione said quickly. "You could jump right into the second one. We can handle this."

"A little flickering won't hurt," Padma pointed out.

"I'd rather not drop the efficiency of your wonderful charging runes, Pad," Cho said.

"Actually, Harry, let's go ahead and open the elemental gates," Luna said.

"On my mark," Harry said crisply, removing his wand from the _naud_ rune and giving the ladies time to move their wands into position. "Three, two, one, mark!" The white light slowly poured into each of the element runes. Harry's _mannaz_ glowed purple, Hermione's _odal_ glowed yellow, Luna's _ingwaz_ glowed green, Cho's _laguz_ glowed blue, and Padma's _kaunan_ glowed orange. The _thurs_ power runes dimmed slightly. "Looks completely solid! Simply beautiful, ladies."

"Harry, try to charge it up again," Hermione said, eyes unfocused in thought. "The extra pathways should change the fundamental frequency."

"Up or down, Hermione?" Cho asked. "I can't do that in my head."

After a moment she shakes her head. "I can't either. Harry, start over again, just in case."

"You got it, boss." Hermione rolled her eyes as Harry pressed his wand tip back to the siphoning rune. "You with me, Luna?"

"I'm watching," Luna assured Harry as he slowly increased the flow once again. In too short a time, Luna spoke again. "Stop, Harry, back it up a little."

"But this is slower than before," he said, disappointed.

"Sorry, nothing we can do now," Luna said.

"Hermione," Cho said in a thoughtful voice, "we could tinker with the diameter of the circle or the distance between the _thurs_ and elemental runes."

"Hmm, yes I see. The sizing of the _ansuz_ channels, too. Good catch, Cho," Hermione mused.

"It took us a week to get this far!" Harry complained.

Padma, ever the pragmatist, steps in. "Well, if we're still going through with it tonight – which I think we should – then for subsequent runs we'll just have to max out first before opening the elemental gates."

This placated Harry somewhat. "So what do we do with this run, ladies? Surely we've used more power than we intended for a simple test. I say we open the central gates and complete the summoning."

"No! That's not what we planned, Harry," Hermione said quickly.

"Mi, you said it yourself: what if they're stronger than we intended? What if they're stronger than all of us combined? At low power we might not get somebody that can help too much, but at least we won't summon a demon or something." He grinned at the roll of her eyes.

"There's no such thing as a demon, Harry," she said flatly, then sighed. "But I suppose you have a point." A burst of anticipation surged through the link, turning cheeks pink all around while Hermione tried to suppress a smile. "Easy there, Harry."

"A little further first, we need to make sure we have plenty to fully activate the third disruptor ring in case the shield ring isn't as efficient as I think it will be," Luna said.

That only slightly dampened the anticipation, which slowly grew back to being stronger than before in the silence that followed.

"Are we going to stay linked afterward?" Hermione asked despite knowing the answer.

"I very much doubt we'll be in danger at this level," Harry said.

"Famous last words," she retorted. "We agreed that we would stay linked this time. You know what might have happened last year if we—"

"_I know_, Hermione," Harry cut in, anger flaring in the link. All four girls flinched...they knew it was a mistake to bring up the fiasco at the Ministry that had claimed his godfather. Who would've known he and the Order were going to charge in like Gryffindor fools and ruin his plan to spring the trap? Under his cloak and linked to the four Disillusioned girls just outside the Department of Mysteries, he had Disarmed, Stunned, and bound three Death Eaters when the Order charged in. They were forced to drop the link to help out, and then Hermione's grievous injury and Sirius' death enraged him so much that he didn't get to link for his brief fight with Voldemort before Dumbledore had stepped in.

The three young women not involved in the mild spat poured love and forgiveness into the link, which quickly calmed Harry and soothed Hermione. "It won't do to be angry for the summoning," Luna reminded him softly, "if you want to avoid summoning an angry demon."

Harry took a final deep breath and couldn't help but let out a quick chuckle and a small smile. Only Luna could get away with jokes like that. "I'm sorry, Hermione," he said softly.

"I'm sorry, too," she said back, reinforcing her apology with sensations of regret through the link.

After a few moments to dissipate the remnants of the brief disagreement, the anticipation returned. "If you're ready, Harry..." Luna began, but she paused to take a deep breath. "...open up the final gates."

"You know it's going to work," Padma said suddenly. She undoubtedly felt the growing anxiety in the link. It was almost certainly mostly from Hermione, but Harry would be feeling it, too. "You know your part, Harry, you won't fail. Remember why we're doing this. Remember: we'll bring help, and we'll stop Riddle and his Death Eaters. We'll bring help, and no more families will be torn apart in this senseless war." The _dagaz_ rune position belonged to Padma for a reason. Her surprisingly fiery passion galvanized Harry and the other witches, sending waves of confidence through the link.

Five arms shot out as one, opening the gates to the _algiz_ ring, popping a shimmering, pulsing blue shield into existence. Within that, the normally ghostly, purplish-gray smoke of the _hagal_ rings' disruption field was tinted rather blue. With the shield in place, Hermione realized her color observations for the _hagal_ rings were quite useless until she could adjust her current data.

"What's wrong, Hermione?" Cho asked, obviously feeling the unease through the link and attributing it to her.

"I never tried a _hagal_ ring inside an _algiz_ shield before," Hermione said, frowning. "I can't tell if the color's right."

"Can it be wrong?" Padma asked, doubt filtering through the link.

"_Tyr_ and _beorc_ runes respond differently to men and women, and Harry didn't test the _hagal_ rings," Hermione said.

"That's because two former ones are the male and female runes," Cho pointed out, "this should be fine."

"It is the same color," Luna said unhesitatingly, her white eyes never leaving the blue sphere filled with purplish light. Suddenly it reminded them all of the prophecy orb in the Department of Mysteries, which caused another spike of concern.

A wave of comfort washed through the link, obviously from Harry, who, controlling the link, couldn't speak once the disruption field was up.

The Shield sphere ballooned to three meters in diameter and stabilized when it touched the small, matching _algiz_ ring affixed to the ceiling. The purplish smoke of the disruptor field thickened, and thin, grayish bolts of electricity began to arc through the roiling clouds. Each participant slowly lost sight of the two people on the opposite points of the pentagram.

Harry wasted no time; he began chanting in a deep voice, Old Norse smoothly flowing off his tongue.

"_Þat kann ek it sjette  
erilaz að rúnum spyrr.  
Haidzruno runu, falahak haidera, ginnarunaz.  
svá ek ríst ok í rúnum fák,  
at sá gengr gumi  
ok mælir við mik."_

His eyes pulsed with power as he chanted, and within the sphere, greenish electrical arcs the color of his eyes joined the gray. His wand, still touching the naud entry point, glowed a brilliant red as if a powerful Reductor Curse was about to blast the pentagram entirely away. Both anxiety and confidence surged in the link at the sight of the maelstrom and the imminent final step.

With a determined look at each of the four girls, Harry turned his attention back to the center of the pentagram, and his eyes flared even brighter. _"Evocatio!"_

The five elemental colors plus the red from Harry's wand surged through the lines and runes carved into the raised stone floor. The shield swirled with iridescence as the wave passed through the ring of protection, then settled back to a light blue just as the now-spinning purplish smoke within flashed white. The previously muffled sounds within grew into a miniature thunderstorm, drowning out gasps from Hermione and probably others. Harry held his wand steady, continuing to feed the maelstrom. The emotions in the link were just as chaotic, so he had no way of knowing if Luna wanted him to stop.

Suddenly the last of the energy in the elemental runes flowed toward the center, and Harry instinctively lifted his wand. The power runes faded, but did not drain completely. The shield lightened and thinned to a pale blue, then softly popped as if someone had just Apparated. An inane flash of amusement entered the bond because that's probably a fair description. The thinning, heavier-than-air, gray smoke – Harry realized the purplish color must have been the magical piece of it – fell downward, first revealing Cho sharing a look with Padma and then Luna staring wide- and white-eyed at the center of the pentagram. The smoke dropped enough that Harry almost jumped back at the head that appeared within, swiveling quickly around to take in his surroundings. The man's relatively short, dark brown hair fell lazily over the top of a fair-skinned face. The thin, chinstrap beard threw Harry at first, but he decided the man was in his twenties.

"What the—? Is this a dream?" The man spoke English, but it wasn't an accent with which Harry was familiar. "Where am I? I swear I was just—" the man began in a shaky voice, then his eyes widened and his palms shot up to his temples. He let out a rather pathetic moan.

A flash of concern for the man came through the link, and out of his peripheral vision, Harry saw Hermione shifting uncomfortably. "Are you alright, sir?"

"Massive hangover," he said, then muttered, "and I didn't even get to enjoy the drinking part of it."

Harry sent a tendril of Healing magic, and felt a stream of gratefulness through the link.

"Oh, that tingles..." then his eyes shot up to Hermione. "Wow, that feels good! Are you doing something to me?"

Hermione pointed to Harry.

A string of emotions played across the man's face. Harry thought he caught a hint of fear along with confusion and finally relief. "Thanks, dude. That's much better."

Dude?

"So, uh, where am I? What am I—?" It was then the man looked down and saw their pentagram through the dissipated smoke. He jumped up with a yelp of fear, and Harry almost stumbled back when he realized the man was quite a bit larger than them. Nothing on Hagrid, of course, but he had to be close to two meters tall with broad shoulders, but under his Muggle jeans and short-sleeved shirt he seemed rather lean; his arms were only lightly muscled. "_What is that_?" He stumbled backward toward Cho, but then twisted out of the collision course when she gasped and dodged away from him. That broke the other three girls out of their frozen state, and they all converged on Harry. The man looked chagrined. "Sorry about that, miss, I didn't see you there."

"The five of us...brought you here...because we need help," Harry said, stumbling over the words. He cursed himself for not thinking about what they'd actually say to somebody they summoned.

The man's head cocked back. "You need _my_ help?"

"Er...we didn't ask for you in particular," Harry clarified, "just help in general."

The man took a long look at each of them, then at the rune circle on the floor. "Well, I think you messed up. Whatever you did to bring me here and whatever you did to fix my headache, I can't do that. In fact, I'm still fairly certain this is a dream, excepting the fact that I haven't woken up yet despite realizing that." The man furrowed his brows.

"Please, sir, I assure you this is not a dream. I'm Hermione Granger, what's your name?"

The man's eyes snapped up at her declaration. Was that recognition? The other girls introduced themselves and Harry followed suit. The man laughed long and hard. "Okay, I know this is a dream, now. What the hell are you doing in Ravenclaw robes, Harry, Hermione? You're supposed to be in Gryffindor!" He squinted at Harry and the others. "And what year are you in, fifth, sixth?"

The five Hogwarts students goggled at the man, but he was looking around now.

"I suppose this is the Room of Requirement? I didn't think Dumbledore's Army did anything like this." The man said, gesturing to the floor.

Harry was the first to recover from the shock. "W-what...h-how did you—?"

The man met Harry's gaze seriously. "Magic." Then he howled with laughter again.

"Is he...okay...in the head?" Hermione asked the others in a stage whisper that the man seemed to ignore.

"He is sane," Luna said. "He just doesn't believe what's happening to him. He seems to know who we are, despite his implication that he is a Muggle."

"And from the States, if I correctly place his accent," Padma added.

Hermione asked him to verify those two items.

"Oh yes, I am from the U.S., except I'm from the year 2012. What is it here, I'm guessing '95 or '96? It's odd to think about but you were all born before me, even if I'm older."

"It's April Eighteenth, 1997," Hermione said dully, apparently still processing this man's statements.

The man cringed slightly. "Ah, I think it's still early enough. That would make you sixth years, except for Cho and Luna, right? And that means Draco is sneaking around cursing people and you don't believe Harry's suspicions, right, Hermione?"

This shocked Harry right out of the link, and at the look on their faces the man chuckled grimly.

"Tsk, tsk, Hermione," the man said, still grinning inanely, "when has Harry steered you wrong before? Draco's going to try and bring Death Eaters into the castle before this year is up, you know. Well, he's already trying, actually."

"I knew it!" Harry blurted, looking at Hermione.

She flushed quite red in embarrassment, but kept a steady gaze on the newcomer. "How could you possibly know that?"

"I already told you, magic," he said with an amused smile. "Besides, I'm from the future, right? Although it is a future from some kind of parallel universe." The man rubbed his lightly bearded chin, then his face lit up and he started searching through his pockets. "This is a pretty cool dream, so I should be able to do magic, right? I'd imagine I would have been able to make a wand appear, though."

"This isn't a dream," Hermione said exasperatedly, "and you didn't really answer the question. How is Draco supposedly going to do bring Death Eaters into the castle?"

"A Vanishing Cabinet. One is at Borgin & Burkes in Knockturn Alley..." the man said distractedly, still searching his pockets and looking around on the floor. Finally he looked up and squinted at the students. "You saw that one at the beginning of the year, didn't you? The matching one is here in the Room of Requirement. Well, not _here_, here, but in the room you get when you tell the Room that you need a place to hide something. Draco is going to try and fix it, if he hasn't started already." Harry and the others are stunned into silence. "Say, do you have the Half-Blood Prince's Potions book? You haven't tried _sectumsempra_, yet, have you?"

"N-no," Harry stammered. "I mean I have the book but I haven't tried...how did you know about—?"

The man let out a relieved breath. "That's good...don't do that. It's a dark cutting curse, nasty stuff that is. Now, hmm, what else is going on?" The man had asked himself, so Harry returned to being completely flabbergasted by him.

"Well since you're here, apparently you're able to help us. Are you sure you're a Muggle from the United States?" Padma asked. "You know an awful lot about both magic and Hogwarts itself for that."

"When I'm not dreaming, I have no magic, no training with weapons or martial arts, and despite being pretty tall I'm not very strong. I'm sorry to say I would be entirely useless to you." The man laughed rather jovially despite that rather dim proclamation, but then he stopped and scratched his head. "But I'm sure I can figure out how to use magic here. _Wingardium Leviosa_!" The man had flung his hand, palm out, toward some sheets of parchment lying on the table. They didn't budge, which caused him to mutter in an annoyed voice. "_Stupefy_! _Protego_!" Nothing happened. Then he looked back up at Padma and shrugged helplessly. "Well, since my own dream isn't letting me do magic, I suppose I could throw rocks at Death Eaters if you want me too."

Luna giggled, surprising Harry and the others and getting a big smile from the newcomer. "Don't you see, Harry: the ritual brought him here because he _can_ help us, even though his dream won't let him do magic."

"Luna..." Hermione said, rolling her eyes.

"She's right," the man said, rubbing his chin. "I've already established that some things are different..." he gestures meaningfully toward Harry and Hermione's clothing. "But some important things are the same. Harry, were you raised by your magic-hating aunt and uncle and forced to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs until Hagrid hand-delivered your letter from Hogwarts, after which you found out for the first time about your parents?"

Harry paled and the girls gasped.

"Ah, you didn't tell them about the cupboard, did you? Sorry about that. But let's keep going. You met Hermione and Ron on the train...I guess you found Hermione more to your liking this time? First year you fought a possessed Professor Quirrell when he tried to take the Philosopher's Stone, second year you fought the basilisk, third year you found out Sirius was innocent and your godfather, fourth year you were forced to enter the Triwizard Tournament, and fifth year..." the man's eyes snapped up and saw Harry stagger as if struck. "Aw, shit, sorry about Sirius, man." The man rapped his forehead with his fist, then looked up apologetically. "What about the rest? Did you still get the Sword of Gryffindor when you fought the basilisk, since you're in Ravenclaw?" Then his eyes widened. "Ginny...?"

The pained expressions and Hermione's arm around Harry's slumped shoulders were all the response he needed.

"Shit." The man ran his fingers through his short brown hair and looked at the ground for several moments before returning their empty gaze. "Shit, shit, shit. What about Cedric at the Tournament?"

The empty gaze was soon clouded by confusion. "What about him?" Harry asked, brows furrowed.

The man blew out a breath. "At least some things turned out better," he said under his breath. "How about Dumbledore? Is his hand blackened?"

"Y-yes..." Harry stammered.

"Damn," the dark brown-haired Muggle muttered before sighing heavily and falling silent, apparently deep in thought. After several minutes he looked back up with a confused expression. "Well, I don't know how long this dream is going to last, but do you have any questions for me? I'd ask you more myself, but despite the fact that you're all figments of my imagination I'd rather not see those pained expressions again. So how can I help?"

It wasn't until then that Harry realized that everybody had just been staring off into space. "Do we win?" Padma blurted out finally.

The man scratched his head and smiled. "Well you should realize that since I'm apparently from some other universe and things are slightly different here, I can't really answer that question. But you did, in mine, if that makes you feel better." He opened his mouth to say more, but apparently thought better of it because he clamped his mouth shut again.

"What?" Hermione asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

The man dropped his gaze. "A lot of bad things happened before you did, though. But that's why you're doing this, right?"

Harry looked pale but determined. "What kind of bad things?"

"Well, all five of you lived, but beyond that I'd rather not talk about it at the moment. I'd rather not wake up sad, you know?"

Luna tilted her head and frowns slightly. "What's your name?"

The man hit himself on the head. "Sorry about that! That was awfully rude of me. Call me Lerner."

* * *

A/N:

The runes in the story are Old Norse runes, but I'm using the earlier Elder Futhark names for some of them to help differentiate them. Somehow, calling the _ansuz_ runes the _ass_ runes (the actual Old Norse term, I kid you not) doesn't seem right. Here is how I use them (_A Curse of Truth_ readers might note the usage of some may be different):

_Thurs_ - power rune - stores magical energy  
_Ansuz_ - control rune - controls flow of magical energy  
_Naud_ - siphoning rune - pulls magical energy from the one touching it  
_Isaz_ - stabilizing rune - stabilizes power runes to avoid leakage of magical energy  
_Algiz_ - rune of protection - forms a protective barrier  
_Mannaz_ - spirit rune  
_Laguz_ - water rune  
_Ingwaz_ - air rune_  
Odal_ - earth rune  
_Dagaz_ - fire rune  
_Hagal_ - rune of disruption  
_Reid_ - rune of travel - paired with _hagal_ and fed with the five elements, opens portals to other realities  
_Tyr_ - male rune  
_Beorc_ - female rune  
_Uruz_ - not used yet  
_Kenaz_ - not used yet  
_Gifu_ - not used yet  
_Wynja_ - not used yet  
_Jara_ - not used yet  
_Pertho_ - not used yet  
_Eoh_ - not used yet  
_Sig_ - not used yet  
_Ehwaz_ - not used yet

The incantation is proto-Norse, which, through playing with online translation tools, I have come to find is somewhere between Icelandic and Danish. Most of it comes verbatim from a spell that Odin says can bring a man back from the dead, from the book of Old Norse poems called _Hávamál_. The third line is the only exception, which comes from the Björketorp Runestone. The first line was originally _tolfta_ instead of _sjette_, but twelfth didn't make any sense in my story so I changed it to the Danish word for sixth (twelfth in Old Norse was closer to Danish than Icelandic). The second line is taken from a different part of _Hávamál_ with my own modification. The translation is hopefully something like this:

_I know a sixth one if I see  
a magician/warrior asked of the runes,  
I, master of the runes conceal here runes of power  
I can so carve and color the runes,  
that the man walks  
and talks with me._

Not terribly impressive in English, I know, but it's fairly close to Odin's spell. My modification was to add _erilaz_, which is a proto-Norse word translated here as magician/warrior due to historical ambiguity. Wikipedia says that it recently has been shown to most likely be simply a military title similar to earl.

_Evocatio_ - _I summon_ - Romans used to do this as a form of psychological warfare, as if they were summoning away the deity or guardian of the city they were attacking. Not what I'm doing, but it sounded better than other options I came up with.

Lastly, my Ravenclaw Hermione likes nicknames.

Review!


	2. Chapter 2: The Second Summoning

Disclaimer: Not mine, any of it.

I'm afraid that if you hoped this was going anywhere interesting, you will be sorely disappointed...because this is now a _Wheel of Time_ crossover in honor of the imminent release of _A Memory of Light_. Yesss...let me feel your anger.

Also, I received my first flame! My 326th overall review, which was left on this story. I feel like a real author now!

Lastly, despite the character's name, this is not a sequel to _A Curse of Truth_. This story was written alongside it, and Lerner was meant to be a similar character. However, I actually have 10k words of a sequel written due to a surprise plot bunny attack (I'm actually quite excited by it, and have a good portion of the plot written out), but based on the way _Harry Silvertongue_ is coming along (i.e. slowly), I find I don't much like this serial posting style. So it could be a while before you see it, though I don't think it'll be another 200k word novel.

* * *

**A Summoning Gone Awry**

**Chapter Two: The Second Summoning**

"I don't mean to sound heartless, Harry, but we could very easily lose the rest of the day talking about parallel pasts and potential futures," Cho said, speaking for the first time around their visitor.

That fact, apparently, did not go unnoticed. Lerner's blue-green eyes snapped to her and he gave her a big, white smile that was a little too reminiscent of a certain incredibly annoying charlatan posing as a Defense Professor some years back. "My apologies, Miss Chang," he said slowly, adding a bow. "Am I holding something up?"

Harry tried not to bristle at the man's obvious flirting. "We were going to do this at least twice more," he said, keeping his voice even.

"For our first attempt at the ritual we used very little power," Hermione said in a clipped tone. Harry noted she was a little less successful at keeping the annoyance out of her voice.

That also did not go unnoticed. Lerner blinked, then studied the five students intently, one at a time. As Harry returned his inquisitive eyes with a challenging look, Lerner's eyes widened and then he threw his head back in laughter. "Harry, you dog!" This brought a blush to all five of them. "Nicely done...very nice! I don't think it's terribly fair you get four beautiful witches all to yourself in my own dream, but damn me to hell if you don't deserve it."

He laughed again at the five shocked faces.

"And I'm glad you have your head on straight in this universe, Hermione," he added with a wink.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked, eyes wide.

"Trust me, you do _not_ want to know the answer to that question," Lerner said with an exaggerated shudder. "Anyway, you guys were going to try this thing again, right? I wanna see before I wake up." Then he blushed a deep crimson. "Uh...I mean, if I can, you know...if it's _that_ kind of ritual..."

"It's not!" Hermione said quickly, suddenly realizing why Lerner was blushing. Luna started laughing loudly as the other four joined Lerner in his blushing.

"Of course you're all very...uh, I mean..not that I would mind...okay, let's just forget I started talking. When are you guys going to do it again? The ritual, I mean the ritual! Oh god, please don't _Reducto_ me into a thousand pieces!"

Luna doubled over with laughter by this point while the others continued to blush furiously.

"I'm going to go stick my foot in my mouth over in the corner, don't mind me," the man said, spinning around to hide his red face.

"We're not going to '_Reducto_ you into a thousand pieces,' Lerner," Hermione said quickly, "why would you even say that?"

"Hey, this might be a dream but I was still scared," the man said honestly. "I didn't want to be on the wrong end of a Stinging Hex...or something worse if you're darker than the versions of you that I know about. I have a low tolerance for pain."

"It's not a dream, and if it was maybe a Stinging Hex would wake you up," Padma pointed out.

"I already pinched myself hard enough to hurt, and that didn't work," he said. "So if it's all the same to you I'd rather not find out. Plus I'm interested to see who my subconscious decides you will summon this time."

"For the last time—" Hermione began, but Harry cut her off.

"Never mind that for now Hermione, let's just go ahead and try again."

The four girls students bent to examine the pentagram as Lerner looked on, apparently rubbing his beard in thought. A thought occurred to Harry, and he looked at the newcomer with interest. "Lerner," he said finally, deciding to take the plunge. The man seemed to know all of his secrets anyway, why not one of his current ones?

After a few moments he tore his gaze from the pentagram – and the four girls, Harry was sure – with an inquisitive expression. "Hmm?"

"I was wondering if you knew about a task the headmaster gave to me earlier. He's been showing me various memories of his relating to Tom Riddle..." Harry stopped as a flash of recognition played across the older man's face. "You know about it?"

He nodded. "Professor Slughorn's memory?"

Harry let out an amused breath. "That's it."

Lerner frowned. "Nasty business, that. If I recall correctly, Riddle asked Slughorn about a piece of rare magic, didn't he?"

Harry nodded eagerly. "And the memory was altered so we couldn't hear what it was."

The man tilted his head back and let out a deep breath. "You understand I'd rather not be the one to tell you about this. In fact, if you have _Felix Felicis _you can get Slughorn to tell you himself."

Hermione made a choking sound at that. "Of course, Harry, why didn't we think of that?" Harry was stunned.

Lerner waved their worries away. "No matter, I can tell you. The magical item Riddle asked about is called a Horcrux. It's kind of odd that Dumbledore doesn't know that..." He cocked his head back and knitted his brows as he trailed off. "Although now that I think about it, I would guess that he does know, but he doesn't want to admit it."

"What is it?" Hermione asked. Neither she nor the other three young women are even looking at the pentagram now.

Lerner shook his head. "It is literally the darkest magic I know. Darker than the Killing Curse itself. It's the reason Riddle is even here, instead of a pile of ash scattered to the wind back on Halloween 1981: a Horcrux is an anchor of the soul to this plane of existence. It's also the reason Dumbledore's hand is blackened: he destroyed one of Riddle's."

"_One_ of his?" Harry asked, goggling.

"One of seven," Lerner said with a grimace. "But look, now's not the time for this discussion. Like Miss Chang said, we can easily waste the entire day on stuff like this. You can always interrogate me later."

"Do you know the items?" Hermione pressed.

The man flinched. "I do, and the locations of most of them. But please don't ask me any more right now. If you'll recall I do prefer pleasant dreams, and this pentagram is most interesting. Tell me, Hermione, how important is the radial symmetry?"

From the expression on the bushy-haired Ravenclaw's face, she clearly fought an internal battle between rooting out and teaching information. Teaching won, barely, since the man had begged off sharing his own. "It's critical, actually, to synchronize the flow of magic to each rune..."

"Let me stop you there for a moment, Hermione," Luna interrupted. "Let's get Harry charging and then you can discuss this along the way. As far as I can tell, we're ready now."

Lerner bowed his head and backed away to allow the five to take their positions. Soon enough they were linked, and Harry's wand was pressed against the _naud_ siphon. He quickly accelerated the charging flow, and at Luna's white-eyed command, backed off from the resonance. As soon as Luna's Sight was canceled, Hermione and Lerner tried to talk at the same time.

The man quickly apologized. "Sorry, what were you going to say?"

She shook her head and smiled. "No, you first, I'd rather start where you want."

"Well, I was curious when you started talking about flow and resonance. It's not quite my specialty but it sounds an awful lot like an engineering problem I'm familiar with."

Hermione launched into a lively explanation of their earlier discussion, including the effect of opening the elemental gates.

Lerner was left shaking his head. "Yuck, I wouldn't even know how to begin modeling that without being able to measure this magical flow rate, or even understanding what it means for magic to flow. Is there some fundamental particle like a photon or an electron? A _magiton_, perhaps? A _thaumaton_? What are its properties? My instinct tells me that Harry should be able to jump past the resonance, but we're missing some really basic pieces of knowledge to determine that, and I'd rather prove that on paper first." Lerner rubbed his beard a moment before his eyes lit up again. "One thing you might be able to try without altering your pentagram is either lowering or raising the temperature. Of the magic itself would be best...if magic even has a temperature, that is. If you can't do it to the magical particles themselves, it still might help to do it to the stone and the air near the pentagram"

Hermione's eyes glazed over at the implications.

"Uh oh, Harry, I think we might have some competition," Padma said with a grin.

"It's the idea she loves, not him," Harry grumbled. "Er, no offense, Lerner."

The newcomer laughed his easy laugh once again. It was getting difficult not to like the man. "None taken. She's a bit young for me, and it won't matter when I wake up, anyway." It was easy to get annoyed with him insisting this is a dream, though.

Since they had a long way to go, Hermione began directing the experiments. Harry couldn't figure out what it meant to change the temperature of magic before he pushed it out, so they tried both cooling and heating the stones and air. Lerner had suggested two additional experiments: heating one and cooling the other. Heating them both, it turned out, offered the largest increase, but they had to be careful not to do it enough that it would damage the runes. Luna estimated an increase in the charging rate of ten percent at their chosen temperature.

After a short while, Lerner excused himself, stood up and when over to the comfortable chairs and flipped through a book. It wasn't long before his head had drooped onto his chest, dozing.

"He's going to be surprised when he wakes up still in his dream," Padma said with a quiet chuckle.

"You're all just as bad as he is," Hermione huffed.

"It's a defense mechanism, Hermione," Luna said softly, "he's a logical man, and what we did to him is anything but."

Hermione paled at the reprimand. "I didn't think of that. Oh no, Luna, what did we do? Think about what we've taken him from! He doesn't have anybody here at all!"

"We've got the reversal ritual here, Hermione," Padma said.

"But we've never used it before! We don't even know it will work! We accidentally pulled him from another year and, he says, another universe, so what if we can't send him back to that point? What if we do send him back and he ends up in a completely different time? We might have ruined his life!"

"It will work, Hermione," Luna said. "The magic knows from whence he came. It will take him back."

The link buzzed with the clash of certainty versus disbelief and worry.

"Maybe we should make sure he is as happy as possible while he's here, just in case," Cho said in an attempt to alleviate Hermione's concern. It had the opposite effect, and at Hermione's horror, Cho blushed furiously red. "Not like that! I just meant don't make him talk about uncomfortable things all the time. And obviously he doesn't have magic, so we'll keep him away from danger."

"I guess..."

"It'll be okay, Hermione," Harry soothed. "He knows who we are. Well, sort of. But he likes us and wants to help. I don't know what kind of people we expected to summon, but despite being a Muggle, he might end up being the most valuable. He knows more than Dumbledore about defeating Voldemort!"

Hermione's initial panic had faded and turned completely to thoughtfulness. "I'm not entirely sure he is a Muggle."

"What?" Padma asked, taken aback. "But it didn't take much energy to bring him here."

"It's just a thought. Hogwarts is protected by wards well beyond our understanding, and I'm surprised they even allow him to be here. We'll have to do some testing."

"I don't know that he'd appreciate being an experimental subject," Luna said.

Hermione smiled. "He's some kind of scientist where he's from. I bet he'll be enthusiastic about it."

"What would you be willing to bet?" Cho asked with a raised eyebrow.

Embarrassment flooded through the link.

"Cho...there are other people present!" Hermione whispered heatedly, glancing at the odd, slumbering man.

"He said he wouldn't mind watching," Luna said with a suggestive smile.

"Luna! He did not say that, he was just embarrassed!"

Padma tried unsuccessfully to hide a laugh. "You are so adorable, Hermione."

"Harry, you can speed it back up, you know," Luna said.

Harry started when she addressed him and flushed when he realized he'd not kept up the pace. "Sorry, I was a bit distracted, after all. Honestly, how am I supposed to concentrate when you all do that?"

"Why, whatever do you mean?" Padma asked, fluttering her eyelids at him.

Harry shook his head and chuckled. "You do want to get through thing again sometime this week, don't you?"

In response she pouted at him.

"Thank you, Harry," Hermione said, "now let's get back to it, shall we?"

The five of them fell into silence, and then into a sort of meditative trance as the _thurs_ runes glowed brighter and brighter. A spike of emotion in the link quickly snapped them all back into awareness.

"I'm starting to get quite a bit of resistance, here," Harry said worriedly.

"Open the elemental gates," Luna said quickly, eyes wide. They did so, using the same synchronized motions as before as Harry pushed magic through them.

"Continue charging?" Hermione asked, concern once again leaking into the link.

"Might as well go for broke," Harry said, placing the tip of his holly and phoenix feather wand back on the siphoning rune.

"Sight, please, Harry," Luna said.

"How are we doing?" he asked, once he had activated it.

"Leaking a bit more at this high of a charge," she replied, "but not nearly enough to overcome what you're putting into it."

He nodded, having come to the same conclusion based on the feel of it. "How much is in there?"

The diminutive blonde fell silent for a moment. "More than you've got by yourself already, and that's without accounting for what goes into the shield, disruptor field, and leakage."

Harry's shock ricocheted through the link. "That's impossible!"

"It's not," Hermione cut in, milk chocolate eyes alight. "I've been thinking about what you said, Luna, that the magic knows. Aristotle once observed in certain natural phenomena that the whole is not the sum of its parts, and magic is one of those things. Magic is an emergent system, or at least exhibits emergent behaviors. I think we are – partially, at least – drawing on magic that none of us can access separately!"

"_The power he knows not_..." Harry said, eyes wide.

She nods excitedly. "Exactly! Riddle could never know this power, because he would never trust or love anybody enough to form a link. Dumbledore was right all along, Harry!"

"Even if he was just guessing," he grumbled, but the excitement flowing through the link was too contagious, so he had to smile at her. "Brilliant as always, my Heart."

Hermione beamed at both his smile and the pride she felt through the link. Out of his peripheral vision, Harry saw Lerner making his way back over, rubbing his eyes.

"Welcome back, Lerner," Harry said, so the Padma and Cho wouldn't get frightened when the older man appeared behind them.

Lerner approached the pentagram with wide albeit tired eyes. "I'm still here, I see."

"Yes," Hermione said uncertainly.

The older man grunted but dropped the subject, making the others wonder if he was starting to come around. Feelings of sadness and pity flowed through the link. "How is it going?"

"Well enough," Hermione said. "We should be ready for the final step soon."

"Six minutes," Luna said, her white eyes turned toward him.

He started when he saw them. "Wow, Luna, that's freaky with the eyes. They weren't like that a little bit ago, were they?"

"No, this is my family's version of Mage Sight," she explained. "I inherited it from my mother's—do you not know this?"

The man's surprised and impressed expression answered for him. "I did not. What does it do?"

"It lets me see magic," she said simply.

"I can see the glow," Lerner said, gesturing to the rune circle.

"Actually, magical radiation can emit wavelengths far outside the range of visible light," Hermione said. "Mage Sight allows her to perceive most of, if not the entire range of magical wavelengths. Luna's version is a familial ability: it takes less magic and can see more than the ritual-provided ability."

The man looked thoughtful for a moment, then his face lit up. "Riddle's glowing red eyes."

Hermione smiled. "Just so. Like I said, though, Luna's is better...actually, you probably know about Professor Moody: Luna's Sight has much of the same functionality, except of course the ability to spin her eyes in any direction."

"Wow, that's awesome, Luna," he said excitedly. "Can you see through Harry's Invisibility Cloak?"

"I can," she said.

The man grinned. "Can you see through his clothes?"

"Lerner!" Hermione scolded.

"That I cannot do," Luna said calmly. "I can see through magic, and since disillusionment and invisibility cloaks are made invisible by magic, I can see through them. Clothing – even conjured or enchanted clothing – is neither made of magic nor invisible."

"I see, what about—"

"Sorry to interrupt, but I'm hitting the limit again," Harry said.

Luna's white eyes snapped back to the pentagram. "Now! Open the central gates!"

Lerner stumbled back at the intense magic raging through the pentagram, but the students stood their ground. Concern roared through the link, but nobody dared speak at the risk of breaking Harry's concentration.

Harry once again performed the chant, ignoring the gaping Muggle. "_Evocatio_!"

The same Apparition type pop was heard, except it was louder. No, Harry decided, it sounded like it echoed, which means there were _two_ pops, one right after the other.

A powerful gust of wind almost immediately blew the smoke away, revealing a tall, red-haired man in a strange red coat with his sleeves pushed up to reveal strange, angry looking tattoos on his arms. This man was the same height, if not slightly taller than Lerner, and it was clear he was much stronger physically. And, unless Harry was mistaken, he radiated magical power, only, strangely, he appeared to have been crying recently. Next to him stood a much shorter brunette woman whose clothing – specifically, her lack thereof – completely halted all of Harry's brain functions.

The red-headed newcomer, a teenager perhaps only slightly older than he, Harry realized, caught Harry's expression and followed his eyes, only to have the same reaction as Harry.

Lerner coughed, snapping everybody out of their daze. "Would one of you lend the lady a coat, please?" Harry realized the Muggle was turned away, but what part of his face was visible was thoroughly red.

Hermione was the first to recover, quickly stripping off the top layer of her robe and trying to hand it to the woman.

Unfortunately, the rather regal-looking albeit nude woman made no move to take it.

Hermione cleared her throat. "Sorry Miss, but would you...er—?

"Mwa—" the redhead began, but the woman cut him off.

"Mistress Alys," the woman said in introduction, finally accepting the robe.

"I'm Hermione, and around you is Luna, Cho, Padma, Harry, and Lerner over there in the back."

"Uh...Wil. Wil Al'Seen," the redhead said, then he turned to Alys. "This feels different from the other visions, Mw—istress Alys. I am myself, but this doesn't look like Rhu—."

"I see," the woman cut him off cryptically.

Suddenly Lerner started laughing again. "Oh, this is too good. This is too good!"

"What?" Hermione asked, but the bizarre Muggle didn't hear her, he just doubled over and then sat there laughing.

"Is he...mad?" the redhead asked uncomfortably. The woman's eyes snapped to him.

"Er, the five of us summoned him here, and he doesn't believe this is real," Hermione explained.

"And you summoned us?" Alys asked, eyebrow raised.

Hermione gulped at the woman's expression and nodded.

Lerner spoke through his fits and spasms of laughter. "So you guys were at Rhuidean, were you?"

The two newcomers immediately spun toward Lerner, who laughed again.

"Oh, this is too good," he said again, smiling broadly. "Well, I'm glad you aren't gone yet, Moiraine Sedai."

Suddenly Lerner's arms snapped to his sides and he was lifted off the ground, despite neither of the newcomers lifting so much as an arm, let alone a wand. "How do you know that name?" The woman's mellifluous voice was similar to Luna's, except deeper and more commanding. Harry decided she must be in charge between the two of them.

"Put him—!" Hermione began.

"Stop, Hermione!" Lerner said, before turning back to the newcomers. "We are not enemies, Aes Sedai."

Harry gaped at the Muggle. "You know them, too," he blurted out.

Alys—no, Moiraine, looked back. "You don't know this man?"

"We didn't, but he knew us," Hermione said. "Please, let him down, he has no magic."

"Magic is for street performers and charlatans," Wil said.

"They mean channeling, Rand," Lerner said, still suspended in the air. "I will never feel the taint of _saidin_."

Wil—no, Rand, started at that. Lerner yelped as he fell to the floor, then picked himself up. "Thank you, Moiraine Sedai."

The woman stared at him. "How?"

"He's from the future," Luna said. "I saw him wrapped in those yellow strands, but what was that colorful ball you put around him?"

This widened Moiraine's eyes, the most emotion she had shown yet. "You can see the flows?"

Luna tapped her temple with her wand. "Not anymore."

"I see," the woman said slowly, studying Luna. After a few moments, she returned her gaze to Lerner. "What did she mean, from the future?"

"Ah, well for you guys it would be the distant past, I guess. Or the distant future, if the Ages cycle like you think. I'm not sure which one we're in now, but it's neither in the Second nor the Third Age." Lerner scratches his head. "Let me see if I can remember. Wasn't there a myth about Merkin and Mosk and lances of fire? Something about a Queen Elsbet...oh yeah! How about Lenn and flying to the moon?"

"Gleeman's tales," Moiraine said flatly.

"No, that's where we are. Queen Elsbet is actually Queen Elizabeth, who is currently their queen. John Glenn is an astronaut, though he wasn't the one that flew to the moon. Merkin and Mosk refers to countries: America and the Soviet Union – whose capital city is Moscow – who nearly fought a war with enormous missiles that can fly thousands of miles in a matter of hours. Missiles are like fireworks, except they can be loaded with explosives that can wipe out entire cities as sure as Rand holding Callandor, except it would be done completely without the One Power." Lerner looked back at the Hogwarts students, most of whom are gaping openly. "And not their magic either, which I guess might be the same as yours, I can't really say, since I can do neither." He scratched his head, seemingly oblivious to the stares. "At least, I don't think I can. Rand, you haven't learned to test other men for the ability to channel, do you?"

"Why would any other men want to channel?" Rand asked, horrified.

The other man waved the question away. "We're in the past, right? Or the future, I guess. The Dark One doesn't taint _saidin_ until the end of the Second Age, and then you cleanse it when..." Lerner's eyes bulged and suddenly he had a coughing fit.

"_What_?" Rand asked, his eyes bulging as well. "What did you say?"

"Ah, you caught that, huh?" Lerner chuckled uncomfortably. "Well, you cleanse it – you and Nynaeve – using the Choedan Kal. You found the access ter'angreal in Rhuidean, didn't you?"

"Rand, is this true?" Moiraine asked.

"No, I didn't see anything like that," Rand insisted.

"Oh, damn...uh, well that's where they are," Lerner said. "I hate to break it to you but I'm pretty sure you fight Asmodean there, but if it's any consolation you win and Lanfear helps you out."

"_What_?" Moiraine blurted out.

Harry chuckled. That's definitely the most emotion she had shown yet. "Yeah, Lerner does tend to get that reaction."

The thin-bearded man grimaced, though. "Yeah, sorry Moiraine, I know a little bit of what you saw when you went to see the Aelfinn, or Eelfinn, I can't remember which."

Moiraine paled, apparently she'd completely lost her composure by then.

"You don't die, at least, you just...uh...disappear for a while. Are captured, actually. If it helps, Lanfear kicks the bucket, though of course the Dark One being the Dark One, she is brought back."

In the shocked silence, Hermione recovered. "Who is this Dark One you keep talking about, Lerner?"

The man grimaced. "He, or it, is like Riddle except way worse. Actually, the Christian name for the concept is Satan, which is awfully close to their name for it, which you can't say without having bad things happen to you." Lerner quickly held his hand up to stave off Hermione's objection. "No, Hermione, in case you didn't know, Riddle has placed a curse on the his made-up name that everybody is afraid to say. It's not just fear: the curse gives him a rough idea of where the person is that said it. It's how you and Harry get caught by his henchman once in the future, because you are only ones who say it."

Harry was so stricken by this he almost didn't hear the next question between the newcomers. "What else can you tell us?" Rand asked.

Lerner snorted. "I could fill over a dozen books on that subject." Then he howled with laughter for some reason.

"Where are the other Forsaken?" Moiraine asked loudly, killing the man's laughter.

"Ah, you sure know how to ruin a man's fun, Aes Sedai. I don't know the answer to all of those questions. It's confusing because the Dark One keeps bringing them back unless you use balefire. So let's see, Asmodean and Lanfear are with you guys in the Aiel Waste."

"_What_?" Rand interrupted.

"Oh yeah, they're disguised among the merchants. I'd recommend not confronting them when you wake up, because you beat Asmodean and then Lanfear restricts his ability to channel and he teaches you stuff. Although, personally I think you should pretend to come on to Lanfear and balefire the shit out of her while she's distracted. She wants old LTT somethin' fierce, in case you haven't figured that out."

"LTT?"

"Lews Therin Telamon, the Dragon," Lerner said. "You know, the voice you hear in your head every once in a while?"

Moiraine's eyes snapped to him, and Rand flushed with embarrassment.

"No need to be embarrassed, Rand, I'm pretty sure he's just a personality you've created to house all of his memories until you can assimilate them. Let's just say I'm glad these guys got you now instead of after some of the crap you have to go through. Although, it would have been nice to get Ninja Jesus Rand after you figure it all out. By then you can Travel, weave Arrows of Fire and Death Gates...um, I forget what else. Although I should tell you that you need to keep Mazrim Taim on a tight leash when you meet him and start bringing in male channelers. Taim is so obviously a darkfriend and for some stupid reason you leave him in charge of the Black Tower."

"_Black _Tower?" Moiraine asked.

"Oh yeah," Lerner said jovially, "Rand will start collecting male channelers, then he cleanses _saidin_. If he wouldn't leave a future dreadlord in charge, they'd be quite a force."

Moiraine raised an eyebrow at Rand as if to scold him in advance. "What will the Amyrlin think about that?"

Lerner rubbed his chin. "Well, they won't be terribly happy, I can tell you that."

"_They_? What happens to Siuan?"

Lerner winced. "Nasty business, that. She is illegally deposed and stilled, and the White Tower splits into two factions for a short time. I guess that brings us back to your original question: where are the Forsaken. One of the Sitters that deposes Siuan is...um...Danelle, I think. There's so damn many of you that I can't keep your names straight. She's pretending to be a Brown, acts sort of dreamy, taps her lips when she thinks. But it's really Mesaana."

The blood drains from the woman's face, but Lerner presses on.

"Now who else? Let's see, Rahvin is in Caemlyn. He has Morgase under his thrall, or he is going to very soon. Sammael is in...Illian, I think. Graendal is in a place called Natrin's Barrow, but I can't remember where that is. She doesn't really do much on her own. Semirhage is with the Seanchan. I actually have no idea where Demandred is, maybe Shara or up in the Blight. I just know he leaves you alone for a long time. Moghedien is slinking around as usual, but she'll be captured by Elayne and Egwene. Who am I forgetting?"

"You said the Dark one brings back the ones we don't kill with balefire," Moiraine said. "That leaves Ishamael, Aginor, and Balthamel."

"Ah, Ishamael comes back as Moridin. I'm not sure when you'll see him, but he actually helps Rand out once or twice. Aginor and Balthamel come back as Aran'gar and Osan'gar. That's not respectively, I can't remember which comes back as which. Osan'gar is one of the male channelers that joins Rand early on and tries to kill him. Aran'gar is actually a woman that channels _saidin_, believe it or not. She'll infiltrate the Rebel Tower and pose as Halima, a servant of one of the Rebel Aes Sedai."

"This is...difficult to believe," Moiraine said, shaking her head.

"Well, believe it, sis. Speaking of infiltrators, you've got a ton of them in your White Tower even before the split. Sheriam, for one. I know of another but she's a double agent that's collecting names, so I won't disclose who. She's going to deliver the names of something like eighty darkfriends to the Amyrlin."

Moiraine eyed him for several moments before speaking. "Verin."

Lerner's look of shock is quickly replaced with a grin. "Ah yes, you caught her in a lie, didn't you? I believe she told Rand that you sent her way back in...uh, before Mat used the Horn of Valere. Anyway, Verin is one of the bravest damned Aes Sedai you've got, so don't interfere. If I recall correctly she was helping Perrin out in the Two Rivers when you left. Perrin and Mat do just fine, by the way, though make sure you get Mat out of that tree when you wake up, Rand."

"What tree?"

"_Avendesora_ or whatever it's called. Mat went to see the 'finn, and they sent him back out with a medallion that protects him from the One Power, a spear, and a noose around his neck, the bastards. You're supposed to find him when you get out of the Aiel Wayback Machine and rescue him." Rand shared a long look with Moiraine, and Harry supposed they were trying to figure out exactly how much of this should be believed.

Cho decided to speak for the first time into the confused silence that followed. "If our time is nothing but a myth where they're from, how do you know about what they're doing, Lerner?"

"And don't say magic," Hermione cut in, turning Lerner's impending response into a grin.

"I won't then. Same reason I know what you're doing." He laughed inanely at that. "The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, right Aes Sedai?"

"Why do you keep calling her that?" Hermione asked.

"That is what they call themselves instead of wizards and witches. In fact, witch is used as a pejorative for them." Then Lerner's eyes widened. "Actually, we have legends of them, as well. The Aes Sidhe, a group of magical beings that have power that rival the gods or something like that. See, it's not everyday you get to meet people straight out of your own myths." For some reason Lerner found that hilarious, too.

"You are a bizarre man," Moiraine said.

"I must be, to have dreams like this. Not that I regret it terribly, at this point. You are quite beautiful, Moiraine Damodred Aes Sedai."

Coordinated forehead slaps by the two other males in the room slightly preceded Lerner being lifted off the floor and threatened with a fireball.

"Why were you...erm...that is..." Hermione started, trying to distract the woman.

"Most of their rituals are done 'clad in the Light,'" Lerner said with a grin from his precarious position. "Of course, that's only the women for some reason."

"You are surprisingly calm given your situation," Padma said, speaking for the first time since the newcomers arrived.

"Ah, yes. Well, Rand there could hit me with that fireball, but Moiraine is Bound by Oath not to unless her life is threatened. She only got this far because she believes that she's not harming me." He gasped for some reason. "Okay! I'm sorry! I won't call you beautiful again."

"You are a glutton for punishment, aren't you?" Rand said with a laugh. "You think she would let you get away with an empty promise like that?"

Lerner coughed. "I won't comment on your physical beauty again until you release me from my oath."

Moiraine let out a breath. "I suppose that is acceptable."

Rand grinned at the other man when he is dropped to the floor a second time. "Are you _sure_ you're not Aes Sedai?"

* * *

A/N:

Info: dumped.

I looked it up and the legend mentioned in _The Great Hunt_ is actually about the giants Mosk and Merk. But I went with what I thought I remembered, and this way I get to allude to the real meaning of the word "merkin."

This is the last chapter I have written completely, and likely the last one that will be posted for the foreseeable future. So take that! Oops, I mean, what do you think of that? I will tell you I had the idea that they would Summon one more person from yet another universe, but I never planned much beyond that. I just figured I'd put something up here to remind you all that I'm still alive and still writing.

Runes and how I use them:

_Thurs_ - power rune - stores magical energy  
_Ansuz_ - control rune - controls flow of magical energy  
_Naud_ - siphoning rune - pulls magical energy from the one touching it  
_Isaz_ - stabilizing rune - stabilizes power runes to avoid leakage of magical energy  
_Algiz_ - rune of protection - forms a protective barrier  
_Mannaz_ - spirit rune  
_Laguz_ - water rune  
_Ingwaz_ - air rune_  
Odal_ - earth rune  
_Dagaz_ - fire rune  
_Hagal_ - rune of disruption  
_Reid_ - rune of travel - paired with _hagal_ and fed with the five elements, opens portals to other realities  
_Tyr_ - male rune  
_Beorc_ - female rune  
_Uruz_ - not used yet  
_Kenaz_ - not used yet  
_Gifu_ - not used yet  
_Wynja_ - not used yet  
_Jara_ - not used yet  
_Pertho_ - not used yet  
_Eoh_ - not used yet  
_Sig_ - not used yet  
_Ehwaz_ - not used yet


End file.
